From the Trenches World Report

MassPrivateI

Maine & Massachusetts residents  may not be able to board a plane using their driver’s licenses starting in 2016 if the state does not start complying with the federal Real ID program.

In 2007, Maine became the first state to reject the federal regulations adopted in response to a study on national security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Federal officials wanted to make driver’s licenses more uniform and secure, but opponents said the federal law was too sweeping and intrusive.   Continue reading “Maine Sec. of State on Real ID: “You might as well just repeal the Fourth Amendment””

ABC News – by ELLEN KNICKMEYER, AP

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will resume issuing oil and gas leases next year for federal lands in California after a new study found limited environmental impacts from fracking and other enhanced drilling techniques, the agency said Thursday.

The move will end a halt that has stood since a federal judge ruled in 2013 that the federal agency failed to follow environmental law in allowing an oil extraction method known as fracking on public land in Monterey County.   Continue reading “BLM to Resume Leasing for Fracking in California”

Reuters – by JOAQUIN PALOMINO

A bill allowing family members to ask a judge to order firearms removed from people likely to commit gun violence advanced in California on Wednesday, one of several gun control measures up for votes in the last week of the state’s legislative session.

The measure was introduced after police near Santa Barbara said they were unable to confiscate weapons from a man who later went on a rampage and killed six people, despite concern from his family that he was in poor mental health and might become violent.   Continue reading “California Mulls Bill To Remove Guns From Potential Offenders”

Preparing with Dave

Respect For You

You have done some time on this earth and your experience is very valuable. May everyone show you respect and allow you your dignity whatever they situation. I will look out for you wherever you are around me as best I can. There are many in today’s world that do not believe in this way, so I hope that you have a way of leveling the playing field and enforcing respect if you have to, without compassion or compromise. You have that right, no matter a person age. It’s a natural thing.   Continue reading “Compassionate and Respectful Words for the Elderly Prepper”

US Crow – by Ron Hardin

Throughout the prepper, militia, and readiness blogs and websites there runs a common thread. That thread centers around a come as you are scenario. The possibility that you will have any notice is slim and none. This is why I keep wondering about who is writing the articles that call for you to return home and secure your BOB (Bug Out Bag) and depart to that place of safety you have chosen in “A Safe Place” versus jamming out with your day bag.

The idea I am writing about is only because I can’t find my copy of the original written years ago by a smarter guy than I am. The information though has been incorporated into my plans so I will share them here. The concept of a day bag came from his wife’s purse. He watched on day as she put in three pairs of nail clippers, three nail files, an extra comb, two of the same lipsticks, and 4 hankies. She caught him watching and asked what was wrong. He asked why so much and so many? Her answer was the key to all preppers. What happens if I can’t come home before I go to a party. What if???   Continue reading “What to put in your EDC Tactical Day Bag”

Mail.com

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Over the long months that Victoria Mitchell lived in her car with her infant daughter, there was one bright spot in her life: doing laundry.

Every month, Mitchell would trek to a local laundromat and take advantage of Laundry Love, a growing faith-driven movement that helps those who are homeless or financially struggling by washing their dirty clothes for free.   Continue reading “Suds, faith found at California laundromat”

Mail.com

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The hidden gunman, dressed in long green coveralls and a SWAT-team-style vest and helmet, looks ominous as he takes aim and fires off a short burst.

But this isn’t a Taliban attack in the heart of Afghanistan’s capital — it’s just a friendly game of paintball. The arrival of recreational paintball to Afghanistan may seem peculiar to outsiders, especially in a country that’s known decades of war, faces constant bombings and attacks by Taliban insurgents and is preparing its own security forces for the withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of the year.   Continue reading “With a splat, paintball fires into Afghanistan”

Mail.com

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain has denied that it offered an invitation to a top U.S. diplomat who was earlier expelled after he met with a leading Shiite opposition group, extending a rift between Washington and the tiny, strategic Gulf nation.

The island kingdom’s undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abdulla Abdullatif Abdulla, said in comments posted by the official Bahrain News Agency on Thursday evening that no invitation has been made to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski.   Continue reading “Bahrain: No invitation to expelled US diplomat”

Zero Hedge – by Dmitry Orlov via ClubOrlov blog

With regard to the goings-on in Ukraine, I have heard quite a few European and American voices piping in, saying that, yes, Washington and Kiev are fabricating an entirely fictional version of events for propaganda purposes, but then so are the Russians. They appear to assume that if their corporate media is infested with mendacious, incompetent buffoons who are only too happy to repeat the party line, then the Russians must be same or worse.   Continue reading “Summarizing The West’s Russia-Ukraine Propaganda”

Mail.com

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s governor says the state should appeal a court ruling that favors the family on the TV show “Sister Wives” and strikes down key parts of a law criminalizing polygamy.

Republican Gov. Gary Herbert said Thursday at his monthly televised news conference on KUED that state laws should be defended in court until all appeals are exhausted. For now, it appears to be legal in Utah for people to legally marry one person and live with others they consider spouses. Though that practice was illegal until a judge’s ruling that was finalized Wednesday, police and prosecutors in Utah have long declined to criminally charge consenting adults in plural marriages.    Continue reading “Governor: Utah should defend anti-polygamy law”

Mail.com

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — For years scientists have theorized about how large rocks — some weighing hundreds of pounds — zigzag across Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park, leaving long trails etched in the earth.

Now two researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, have photographed these “sailing rocks” being blown by light winds across the former lake bed.

Cousins Richard Norris and James Norris said the movement is made possible when ice sheets that form after rare overnight rains melt in the rising sun, making the hard ground muddy and slick. On Dec. 20, 2013, the cousins catalogued 60 rocks moving across the playa’s pancake-flat surface.   Continue reading “Mystery of Death Valley’s moving rocks solved”

WND – by Garth Kant

WASHINGTON – It’s an explosive charge, one that practically accuses the president of treason.

A former CIA agent bluntly told WND, America has switched sides in the war on terror under President Obama.

Clare Lopez was willing to say what a few members of Congress have confided to WND in private, but declined to say on-the-record.    Continue reading “CIA expert: Obama switched sides in war on terror”

Washington Post – by Brady Dennis

The Ebola virus sweeping through West Africa has mutated repeatedly during the current outbreak, a fact that could hinder diagnosis and treatment of the devastating disease, according to scientists who have genetically sequenced the virus in scores of victims.

The findings, published Thursday in the journal Science, also offer new insights into the origins of the largest and most deadly Ebola outbreak in history, which has killed more than 1,500 people in four countries and shows few signs of slowing. It also provided another reminder of the deep toll the outbreak has taken on health workers and others in the affected areas, as five of the paper’s more than 50 co-authors died from Ebola before publication.   Continue reading “Ebola virus has mutated during course of outbreak”

BATR – by James Hall

Learning is a noble pursuit, but the ancient Greek text is one of the few places where the Socratic Method survives. Sanctioned political doctrine of required thinking is the mainstay in today’s august temples of purification. Forget about a classroom, the curriculum core of New Age studies has no room for the classics, much less instructions into the process of thinking itself. Except, of course for the need to electronically check off the loan applications and assign grants to the business office. In the end, university is big business and developing intelligent graduates happens as an afterthought, if at all.   Continue reading “The Monopoly of the Government Education Cartel”